Elections and Electoral Systems

Kate Eloise P. Esber

 What is an election?
• A means of choosing leaders, ascertaining
control of governments and conferring
legitimacy, and evaluating those parameters
(ADMU Press)
• A formal decision-making process by which a
population chooses an individual to hold public
office (Wikipedia)
• Election is portrayed as the very heart of
democracy (Heywood)
 What is an election?

• Elections in the Philippines

• Guns
• Goons
• Gold
 Electoral Systems
• Consist of the process that translates the votes
into seats won by parties and candidates
• Set of rules that governs the conduct of
elections
• “Duverger’s Law”
– Certain kinds of electoral system tend to produce
certain types of party systems that directly impact
on structure of government
 Electoral Systems
• Plurality electoral system
– candidates with highest number of votes is
declared the winner
– “first-past-the-post” (FPTP)

• Multiparty electoral system

– allows more party to view for seats
 Electoral System
• Majoritarian System
– Two-round system
– Alternative system

• Proportional Representation
– Seeks to consciously reduce the disparity between
a party’s share of the national vote and its share of
the parliamentary seats
 Political Parties

• Main vehicle for organizing groups for

elections
• Mirror of the basic composition of society
(Duverger)
• Parties are essentially organizations of the
elite (Michels)
 Electoral Administration
• Electoral management bodies (EMB)
• Majority of EMBs has power to:
– Make rules, regulations, and determinations
 References:
• The Ateneo De Manila University Press (2010).
Philippine Politics Democratic Ideals and
Realities
• Andrew Heywood (2013). Politics
• Wikipedia (2016, March 27). Election
Retrieved from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election